The Aristos: A Self-Portrait in Ideas [Hardcover]

John Fowles (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company; Rev. ed edition (September 1970)
• ISBN-10: 0316290947
• ISBN-13: 978-0316290944
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Sincere at times profound but dull and humorless reflections on the human situation, June 27, 2009

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Aristos: A Self-Portrait in Ideas (Hardcover)

This was Fowles second book. It is a work inspired by Heraclitus and the 'Pensees' of Pascal. Instead of the kind of multiple- narrative and complex speculative fiction this is a work of ideas, straightforwardly presented. But it is at times profound in its analysis of the human situation. Essentially Fowles contrasts the aristos, the few who are the great creative figures with the masses. He claims to be a democratic socialist who would contend with the gross inequalities in the economic world. But he also sees the modern worship of Money as a sign of cultural decline.
The thought of the work is presented ordinarily in short paragraphs. The problem with the work as I understand it is that it lacks irony and humor. Though Fowles reserves highest praise for Poetry his work is without much poetry. It lacks a kind of resonance which poetic thought at its best has.
Still it is a work of someone who has thought very seriously about major questions and offers interesting suggestions in regard to many of them.

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly moving (at the right time), June 2, 2000

By 

John Thomsett (Nieuwegein, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Aristos: A Self-Portrait in Ideas (Hardcover)

When I read this at 19 years of age I was thoroughly moved by it. It opened my thinking from teenager to grown-up. Now, 20 years later, I will probably find it naive or pretentious, but the 5 start stars are well deserved it you read this at the right moment in life.